Friday, March 14, 2014

Extra Time: Clint Dempsey

I acquired the quotes for the Tottenham move portion of this cool MLSS feature on the life of Clint Dempsey. You know the drill when some of the story offered (this time by Deuce's agent) has missed the editing cut, so here we are. And it is also nice when old reporting is substantiated, so you know there's no way I was keeping all this a secret. Heh.

You can start with the quotes in the article and then fill out the rest of picture below.

Actually, there's a documentary show "We Are Liverpool" and in one episode they show [managing director] Ian Ayre on the phone on August 31, and it then says they couldn't make the deal work. That conversation on the show is actually with me, they were still trying to figure out if they could a deal done.

Tottenham really pushed forward on the last day. A week before we had a principle agreement that would have worked with Liverpool, but there was a player who would have had to go on loan to Fulham and he wanted to stay at Liverpool. And then, Arsenal had an interest in the final day.

We delivered that deal just before 11 pm, which was the transfer deadline. We had everything basically, we just needed Fulham to agree the fee. The whole thing was finalized in the final hour. I had Clint, I was about 20 minutes from the ground and as soon as it went through we went straight in to sign. We even did it without a medical, it was that last-minute.

It was a long process. There was dialogue through that window. Liverpool was around for three months. We always thought it would go to the end, but we didn't know which club it would be. But it worked out very well, he was really happy to be with Tottenham, to stay in London. It went down to the wire and then we went to the Norwich game the next day, and he was announced to the crowd.

Clint was a regular on a Spurs team that finished 2 places and 11 points higher, was in the running for a Champion's league spot to the last weekend of the season. He finished 3rd on the team in goals and assists (behind only Defoe and Bale) and earned a transfer for the highest salary (by many times) of any American player ever...

matthew, you do speak the truth. but the whole truth is that had he signed with Liverpool, he would have still signed the highest transfer salary.

he was third in scoring, but, that is what was expected from him. he still was expendable to tottenham, and they knew they were selling bale. so whats good about going to a team who is only going to turn around and sell their best talent? that's a team where champions league is always going to be, just out of reach.

matthew, you are trying to convince yourself that tottenham was a better fit than Liverpool would have been, by suggesting that tottenham finished higher with deuce on the team, than Liverpool did without him. what kind of sense is that?

I think deuces agent summed it up best when he in his own words talked about deuce being able to stay in London, with regards to the tottenham move from fulham. its an interesting commentary from someone who only a year later will be talking about deuce moving to seattle for similar family reasons, and money of course.

you cant honestly believe that deuce would not have preferred going to Liverpool? because he would have, and he himself also knows that Liverpool would have probably been a better fit as well.

For the 50,000th time, Dempsey was not simply "expendable" to Spurs and they were not trying or wanting to get rid of him. This has been universally stated many times now by everyone involved before, during and after.

john, im sorry, but we cant let a soccer blog debate end with "teehee". if this was a Barbie blog, ok, but not a soccer blog, an American soccer blog. it only help to substantiate long held stereotypes about this sport.

"Liverpool was around for three months", the agent knew this process was going to go to the end, and he says, he didn't know where deuce would go. it just sounds strange if you are trying to find your client a new team and a good fit, and to say, you don't know where he will go, all the while "knowing" it will go down to the wire.

"Liverpool was around for three months" it sounds to me like the agent, after the fact, is playing down whatever bids Liverpool did put in, and I don't recall tottenham having to part with a player as part of the deuce deal.

now I could get behind the idea that Jennifer cheng had something to do with tanking any possible deals between Liverpool and Dempsey, and GAM did come out several weeks earlier proclaiming deuce as a new member of the reds.

and the debate was which team would have been a better fit, and in reality, we will never know how deuce would have done if he played at Liverpool. he did ok at spurs, and he did hit a big game winner against one of the big teams of all time.

Liverpool is a bigger team than spurs and it would have been a nicer fit. he could have played at Liverpool for two or three years and possible created a wonderful legacy for himself at one of the historical teams of all time, with maybe the most passionate and informed fan base on the entire planet. he still could have come back to MLS after 2014 and signed a nice fat bumper contract, just like he has.

deuce did score a real nice goal yesterday in his loss to Bradley and his old buddy from tottenham.

@dikranovich: You're wrong again dikranovich. Liverpool simply lowballed Fulham. Liverpool might be a bigger club but they weren't a better club than Tottenham last season. Dempsey is now with Seattle so this argument is kinda pointless now.

While hindsight is 20/20 (and as I say that Dempsey has had his 2 best games in a row in a long while), I still think losing Dempsey was a huge loss for our squad at Tottenham.

As it was previously stated, Dempsey was third in the squad in goals and assists (nevermind that the majority of his goals came in big moments). One key factor that is often overlooked is that Dempsey was the only player on the squad to develop good chemistry with Ade who is now the focal point of the offense. I think that "chemistry" is largely what this Spurs team is missing and where the constant turnover of players is killing the team. I could only imagine how that relationship would of paid dividends for Tottenham this season had Dempsey still been in the squad.

Regardless, Dempsey was always a part of the squad when he was healthy, but that has been the chief issue with Dempsey the last few years in that he always seems to pick up minor injuries during good runs of form.

Who is NSC?

NSC is run by Greg Seltzer (MLSsoccer.com), who has reported on soccer across the globe since 2001, covering MLS, MLS Cup, U.S. Men, Women & Youth national teams, World Cup, Gold Cup, U-20 World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, UEFA Champions League and Europa League, UEFA Cup, CONCACAF and UEFA qualifiers, Premiership, Bundesliga, Eredivisie, various second-tier leagues, domestic cups and international friendlies.